Not All Fights are Good Fights (1 Timothy 6:11-16)

Dear friends in Christ:

A certain man is known for having strong opinions. If you sat next to this man, you would hear his strong opinions about the Packers or the Brewers, opinions that tell you he spends a lot of time listening to radio or watching ESPN or searching the internet. He knows exactly which players should be playing and which managers should be managing. He has strong opinions and he will let you know what they are. If you spend more time with him, you’ll hear his strong opinions about his workplace, maybe his boss absconding with the company funds, maybe his co-workers are all idiots and he is the only smart one. If you work with him, he’ll bring you into all the office politics and what is going on and his take on everything. He has strong opinions. If you ask him about his neighbors, he’ll tell you about trees and property lines. He has strong opinions. It seems like he has all kinds of energy for all of these fights that he is engaging in, but the truth of the matter is, he is exhausted. His marriage is falling apart. His kids don’t talk to him. He has spent all of his energy on fights that are not good.

Today our focus is on this wonderful statement of the apostle Paul, fight the good fight, and a reminder to us and an application to us is not every fight is a good fight. Not everything we are engaging our energy into is a good thing for us to be engaging our energy in.

When Paul was writing this letter to Timothy, he was writing to a veteran pastor surrounded by this kind of fighting. The Packers and Brewers obviously weren’t around back in Timothy’s day, but there were lots of controversies, quarrels about words, envy, dissention, slander, greed, love of money. The church in Ephesus had people who treated Christianity as a means of financial gain. “If I’m a Christian, then somehow I should be blessed. I am going to try to work that out so materially things go well for me.” The church in Ephesus had people who loved arguments more than the truth.

So what does Paul tell Timothy? How do you address a world like that where people are having all their energy engaged in all of these fights? What does Paul say? He says, “Flee from those and fight the good fight. Pursue something else.”

You and I are natural born fighters for the wrong things. Before this passage that we have before us in Timothy, Paul describes people who have an unhealthy craving for controversy and quarrels about words, people who have all kinds of envy and dissentions, slander and constant friction. This is also the part of a letter where Paul writes what is often quoted, “The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.” All of these things are no small problems and it isn’t just the guise in our midst that is struggling with this. I hope you ALL see how easy it is for us to engage in battle and conflict and put our energy in fights that are not good.

It is so easy for us to fight over the wrong things, to spend our energy in an area that is not good for us. It’s the air that we breathe as the church. The air that we breathe is the capacity for being distracted from the things that really matter because we have a sinful nature inside of us that is only pointed towards itself and our own comfort. So, when something threatens our own comfort, we fight. It’s so easy for us. When the rightness of our cause is challenged, we’re ready to take up arms. “I need to be right!” Or our reputation—“I need to make sure everybody knows how important I am!” Whether it’s at home or with the moms or at work or with friends, “I need everyone to know how important I am, so I will scheme to make sure everybody knows I am the most important person in the room!” We want everyone to see who we are and how unique we are.

That’s coming from our sinful nature. It is the air we are breathing. It’s so easy for us to engage in fights like these.

We fight for money. We fight for an empty promise of security. We fight outside these walls and inside these walls. How many of these would Paul call good? James says it in this way. Where do conflicts and quarrels among you come from? Don’t they

come from your cravings for pleasure, which are at war in the parts of your body? (James 4:1) A man or woman who fights every battle presented to them has nothing

left for the battle that matters. The Christian who is consumed with winning arguments about politics or money or status has quietly abandoned the fight that God has called good, maybe not dramatically. Maybe it’s by slow substitutions, smaller, noisier battles crowding out the one that is good. The good fight of faith, the good fight of holding onto Christ, of living for Him, of denying yourself, this is the one that is easy for us to abandon in pursuit of other things.

A soldier assigned to guard a supply depot begins to think that depot is the actual war. He polishes all of the gun cabinets. He sorts out all the boxes of bullets. He argues with other soldiers about what is the best arrangement of the inventory. He forgets there is this thing called a front line, and we do the same. We misplace our energy. We channel it towards what are our preferences, our comforts, and our rightness. If our energy is engaged in things that are not the fight of faith, not the pursuit of righteousness, of godliness, of agape unselfish love, of endurance or gentleness, then you are a soldier guarding the depot thinking the battle is about 223s and 277s.

So Paul says flee. Flee those things. There is no way you can win. Flee those things and pursue something else. But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue

righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Let’s unpack that

some more.

Paul looks and sounds a lot like the fruit of the Spirit list from the Book of

Galatians (Galatians 5:13-26)—righteousness, what is right in God’s sight. We know we are declared righteous, that God looks at us and tells us that we are right with Him. We are doing all the right things because we are wearing not our righteousness but we are wearing Christ’s righteousness. We have the status before God of being right, but now God says to live like that. Live like someone who is righteous, who is pursuing the right things, and who is pursuing godly things.

Of course, that leads us to the next point—Godliness, being more like God. How do we know what it means to be more like God? His Word opens up and there it is. God’s Word tells us what exactly it is to be God, what is right, what is wrong, but then also godliness isn’t just about the Law, doing the right thing or not doing the wrong thing. It is about being more like the characteristics of God. Loving, unselfishly loving someone else, having good favor toward someone else, mercy, forgiveness. Those are wonderful qualities of God that He says you are also to emulate these things. You be gracious and merciful, unselfish in this world. As Jesus said in our Gospel Lesson, “Whoever wants to follow me must take up their cross, deny themselves,” meaning we’re living for others, living for God and living for others, “and follow me”—godliness, faith, trust, pursue faith, pursue trust, trusting that God will take care of you.

When we think about greed (like I mentioned before) and we talk about giving to our Lord, this is an act of trust. When it’s first-fruit giving, when we decide “I’m going to give this amount to the Lord” or this percentage to the Lord, “I am trusting He is going to take care of me with the rest of the funds I get this month. Pursue trust.

Pursue endurance. That means being a Christian isn’t about this one-hour window that we are engaged in right now but what it means to be a Christian the whole week, all the time. Pursue that. Pursue gentleness for both men and women—gentleness.

This is the good fight of faith. You cannot pursue righteousness and godliness while you’re still standing in the middle of a quarrel about words, of nursing financial anxiety or holding a grudge. Fleeing means disengaging from what is consuming us so that we have something left for what matters.

Not every argument deserves a response. Not every provocation deserves a fight. Paul says “Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you

were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” Take hold of what you already have. “Take hold of this wonderful salvation that you have, Timothy, when you made this good confession.” What he is referencing is maybe a personal letter between Paul and Timothy. We know Timothy was a believer, even from infancy. Maybe this was Timothy’s ordination, when he was installed as a pastor. He made a good confession that he was going to hold onto this salvation through Jesus alone. Maybe that is what Paul was referencing. Maybe it is another instance where Timothy was called to defend the Gospel, to defend what it means to be in the kingdom of God. Paul encourages him, “Take hold of that eternal life. Continue in that good confession.” He mentions the good confession of Jesus. That good confession Jesus made before Pilate.

Do you remember all the things that Jesus confessed before Pilate, all the things Jesus talked about? I’ll give you a couple of phrases to jar your memory. “You have no power over me except what was given to you by my Father.” (John 19:11) “My kingdom is not of this world.” (John 18:36) “Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” (John 18:37) Jesus made the good confession as to what is the kingdom of God and what is the reality of what is going on. God has brought His Son, who is God, to earth. This Son lived the perfect life. His kingdom is not of the kingdoms of this world. His kingdom is in the hearts of people who listen to His voice, who listen to His words. And oddly enough, when He made that good confession, Pontius Pilate was also a witness to this when he put over

Jesus’ head, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” (John 19:19)

Jesus died on the cross, not because Pilate had some sort of agenda. Jesus wasn’t sitting there before Pilate trying to defend Himself or His reputation or His rightness. He wasn’t before Pilate concerned about money or wealth or reputation or anything of this world. He was standing before Pilate saying “This kingdom of heaven is what I’m about.” And on the cross, it was a wonderful confession—King of the Jews, King of the world, King of kings, Lord of lords, the King of His people who listen to His voice, the King who suffered for His people so that they would be with Him in heaven forever. He died on the cross so that they would never die. The fight of faith is the fight He fought and He won for you. “It is finished” (John 19:30) Jesus said from the cross.

Your fight is over, too. Your fight is won. It’s done. It’s completed. Jesus’ righteousness is yours. You don’t have to sit there and go “Well, does God really love me if I make the right decisions? Does God really love me if my life is a struggle?” No, you go to the cross and you say “There He is—loving me! My King, going to the cross, loving me, making sure that He was doing the right thing, making the right decisions for me, and in my place, Jesus died. I know God loves me because I see Him on the cross dying for me.” The fight of faith is already won, but our sinful nature and the world are like those Japanese soldiers after WWII who still thought the war was going on. They still keep fighting even though the war is over. We fight, not to secure a victory for ourselves but because we are living in victory.

As Paul says to Timothy he says to us, “Flee the bad fights. Pursue the good fight of faith because of who you are. You are a subject of the King.” A King who Paul can’t help but praise—“…until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will

bring about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen. Isn’t it neat how in this section, if you study this at home and read this, you have this picture of Jesus in all of His victory. Yes, He made that good confession before Pilate. Yes, that led Him to the cross, but now Jesus is dwelling in unapproachable light that no one can approach by themselves. We can’t approach God on our own righteousness. We can’t approach Him and say “I’m going to get into heaven because I’m a good person” because God will say “You know what good is? It’s perfect, and that’s not you.” We can’t approach Him and yet Paul says, “We are in the presence of God, in the presence of Christ.” In Verse 13 he says that. “I charge you in the presence of God,

who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus…” That’s a profound thought as we

are looking for encouragement to fight the good fight.

My Jesus won the good fight. Yes, He is an unapproachable light. He is so far beyond me. He is so powerful, so much more powerful than I am, yet He is right here with me! He is right here if I open His word, if I sing His praises. Here He is in His word, encouraging me to keep going when I have run out of energy. He is encouraging me to trust Him when I’m anxious about my finances. He is encouraging me to talk about the things that really matter when I would rather just talk about the Packers, the Brewers, my work, or anything else.

Not all fights are good fights. What are fights that you are losing yourself in? The arguments, the grudges, the anxious scramble for security—none of them have the power to define who you are. You are called, claimed and given eternal life. The good confession has been made by Christ to you. You are His. Your sins are washed away. Hold onto the one who has already won the only fight that matters.

So let go of the grudge that has become a hobby. Let go of the argument that you keep regurgitating. Let go of the financial anxiety that is robbing you of peace. Let go of the online controversy you can’t stop feeding. Let go of obsessing over finding your unique identity other than the identity you have as a redeemed child of God. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called. Pursue steadfastness and gentleness and unselfish love, not as a checklist but from an overflow of a heart that has been claimed by the King of kings, from an overflow of a heart (your heart) that has been set free from the exhausting tyranny of fighting for yourself.

Not all fights are good fights. Most of the battles that consume our energy are fights that Paul would tell us to flee. There is one fight that is good. The good fight of faith. The daily agonizing, the beautiful struggle to hold onto what Christ has said, to trust what He has said, to pursue righteousness and love and mercy and steadfastness in a world that is always presenting to us smaller, noisier battles to fight instead. Our fight has already been won. The King of kings has made the good confession. He has gone to the cross. He has walked out of the tomb. He holds the outcome and He is coming again. That is what we know. We also know that what He holds before us, our life, our Christian life, what flows between here and eternity is a fight, a good fight of faith. Amen.

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7) Amen.